Subtle Differences in Swedish Postwar Urban Planning

The article examines three Swedish housing projects from the 1950s that illustrate a rapid shift in thinking about public space. In Årsta, a new town south of Stockholm, the center built between 1943 and 1953 featured a large assembly plaza surrounded by community services like a dental clinic and maternity center, with shops not occupying prime locations. In Örebro, the 1951 Baronbackarna competition won by Per-Axel Ekholm and Sidney White produced three- and four-story blocks with pitched roofs and balconies, enclosing a pre-existing rocky natural area, similar to the English Golden Lane and Robin Hood Gardens schemes. By 1954, Vällingby, a group of suburban communities northwest of Stockholm, had a center designed by Backström and Reinius where commercial buildings formed the heart, with pedestrian shopping streets featuring careful paving and fountains, while cultural buildings and St. Thomas Church by Peter Celsing were relegated to peripheral streets. The article contrasts these with the earlier Golden Lane competition (1952) by Alison and Peter Smithson, which proposed 'streets in the sky' and a cluster city concept. Peter Eisenman in Oppositions (1973) analyzed the fundamental difference between a pedestrian street network and a single spatial enclosure. The authors conclude that today, the internal layout of open blocks matters less than perimeter security measures.